New App Bond Uses AI to Get You Off Your Phone

Tired of scrolling through the same feeds until your eyes hurt? A new app launching this week thinks artificial intelligence might be the cure for our screen addiction.

Bond looks like Instagram at first glance, but it works completely differently. Instead of trapping you in an endless feed, it learns from what you share and then kicks you back into the real world with personalized suggestions.

Here's how it works: You post "memories" about your daily life through photos, videos, or audio clips. Bond's AI studies what you enjoy and recommends actual things to do nearby.

Love pho but haven't had it in weeks? Bond might point you to a highly-rated Vietnamese restaurant around the corner. Into heavy metal? It'll tell you Iron Maiden is coming to town next week.

The team behind Bond includes veterans from TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook. CEO Dino Becirovic previously worked at major venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins and Index Ventures.

Unlike traditional social platforms, Bond has no advertising. Your stories disappear from public view after 24 hours but stay archived in your private profile for you to revisit anytime.

The revenue plan is unconventional. Becirovic envisions users eventually licensing their own data to AI companies for training purposes, with Bond taking a small cut. Users could also opt into product recommendations that connect with online stores.

Why This Inspires

For years, tech companies designed apps to keep us glued to screens as long as possible. Bond represents a growing movement of platforms trying to fix that problem instead of profiting from it.

The idea that a social media company would actively try to get you offline feels revolutionary. Whether it succeeds or not, it shows how much the conversation around technology and wellness has shifted.

Bond promises users can delete their memories anytime and that the company will never sell data for advertising. End-to-end encryption is planned for the near future.

Right now, Becirovic says making Bond cool matters more than making money. The real test will be whether people actually want a social app that tells them to log off and go outside.